INTRODUCTION The coastal zone is an important area as it affects the global environments through the interaction between land and ocean (Kremer et al., 2005). Metal concentrations in sediments usually exceed those of the overlying water column (Caroline et al., 2002). As a consequence, metals originating from human activities can often be identified more readily by analysis of sediment than by the quantification of metal concentrations present in water (Haynes et al., 2006). Kevin et al., (2006) has reported the ability of the sediments in integrating the temporal variability of metals that are originating from human sources. He also ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY www.orientjchem.org Est. 1984 An International Open Free Access, Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 0970-020 X CODEN: OJCHEG 2012, Vol. 28, No. (2): Pg. 725-732 The Distribution of Selected Metals in the Surface Sediment of Langkawi Coast, Malaysia M.S. MOHD ZAHIR¹, B. AKBAR JOHN 1,2 , B.Y. KAMARUZZAMAN 1,2 *, K.C.A. JALAL 1,2 , S. SHAHBUDIN², M. MOHD FUAD 1,2 , F. FIKRIAH 1,2 and M. ANIES AZNIDA 1,2 1 Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Bandar Indera Mahkota, 25200, Kuantan, Pahang (Malaysia). 2 Institute of Oceanography and Maritime Studies, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Bandar Indera Mahkota, 25200, Kuantan, Pahang (Malaysia). *Corresponding author E-mail: kama@iium.edu.my (Received: May 11, 2012; Accepted: June 14, 2012) ABSTRACT Surface sediment samples were collected from five stations covering 25 sampling points from the Langkawi coastal waters. Concentration of metals such as Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd, and Cr were determined using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The detected concentration range of Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd, and Cr were 41.02-137.1 μgg -1 , 14.36-46.32 μg.g -1 , 14.4- 38.6 μg.g -1 , 0.6-2.4 μg.g -1 , and 40.5-84.5 μg.g -1 dry weight respectively. Enrichment factors (EF) analysis showed that the source of Zn, Cu and Cr in the sampling areas were predominantly of terrigenous in origin while the source of Pb and Cd were slightly of anthropogenic in nature. Key words: Enrichment Factor, Langkawi Island, Zinc, Copper, Lead, Cadmium, Chromium. observed the remobilization of metals during the early stages of post-depositional transformations of the sediments. Sediments have high physical- chemical stability and their characteristics usually represent the average condition of the system, often being representative of the average water quality (Isaac et al., 2005). Estuarine and coastal environments are primarily being used as a sinks of river borne metals originating through natural weathering and anthropogenic sources (Hung and Hsu, 2004). Due to the industrialization and urbanization processes, a considerable number of anthropogenic activities such as smelting, mining, electroplating, and other